Address from the General Secretary

Bob Briton

19/07/2023

We are excited to introduce the hard copy version of the ACP’s central organ: Militant Monthly. It was always our intention to produce such a publication to increase the availability of our analysis to our readers. It is interesting to note that, even as more and more people access news and entertainment on mobile devices, there is still an important role for print media. This hard copy magazine will increase the volume of news and views from the standpoint of the ACP, allowing for a greater variety of material on a new platform.

It is inevitable that many of the articles carried in the new magazine will be based on bad news – challenges and hardships suffered by the working class here and overseas. Many other media outlets do the same but none feature a practical alternative to the capitalist system at the root of these problems. That is the function of the Militant Monthly in both formats – to educate, agitate and organise workers to achieve a socialist society.

Our first issue features an article about the referendum for what is called a First Nations Voice in the federal parliament. The ACP is opposed to such a step and the associated notion of a treaty with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples in the current circumstances of capitalist class rule and ongoing oppression and dispossession. The traps and setbacks inherent in such propositions must be more widely understood and these articles provide background and analysis that will be useful for that task.

There are two essentially reactionary agendas being advanced on this issue at the moment. One is opposed to the Voice. Its advocates play to voters’ conservatism that such a constitutional change might bring negative consequences for a system they regard as more-or-less perfect; that the proposition is unclear on essential details, and so on. There can never be enough detail for such people. These sorts of arguments will provide a “respectable” cover for those who are simply hostile to the interests of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people and any need for restorative justice.

The other viewpoint is that, while the Voice can never put right all the historical injustices suffered by Indigenous peoples, it is something of a concession and that the defeat of the referendum would be a victory for the forces described above. Unfortunately, a Voice in the federal parliament would be taken by those in power as closure on a lot of the legal and moral issues at the core of the Australian capitalist state. The same would be the case if ever a treaty were concluded between the colonising capitalist state and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples. The situation of these peoples would remain one of exploitation and repression but would then be draped with a cloak of legalistic tokenism.

In the ongoing debate, Indigenous peoples opposed to such gestures must receive our solidarity and active support. Justice for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples will never be achieved under capitalism. Liberation for all the exploited people of the country is inextricably linked to the struggle for a system free from class exploitation. This is not to say that we cannot and should not struggle for changes and relief at this very moment, but lasting change will not become enshrined until that is achieved. A phoney voice and a treaty under colonialism are not part of that process for liberation.

The issue also anticipates the launch of the ACP’s national housing campaign in March. The campaign has been a long time in preparation and will be the main focus of Party activity for the next couple of years. Housing is a life and death issue and, while most people will complain about the affordability of housing and its impact on the general cost of living crisis, few are actively campaigning around it with an eye to a win on some fronts. Again, the housing question cannot be resolved under capitalism – a system where people’s need for shelter becomes the source of wealth for exploiters – but a concerted push back must be organised. This effort will also be a major focus for the Militant Monthly for the duration of the campaign.

In the meantime, we hope and trust readers will appreciate the new hard copy of our publication and that it supports our efforts to mobilise resistance to the capitalist agenda grinding down the workers and other exploited people of Australia. May this publication not just encourage comrades and supporters to educate themselves – but to agitate and organise too. A revolutionary movement must be more than a reading club.